Notes by Prof. Salviati: This ornament is carved in the shape of a dragon with a sinuous body accompanied by a curling snake carved near the tail that resembles a stylized bird head with a long crest. A ring, held by two small protrusions which probably stand for shortened wings, is placed between the two central bends of the body that is entirely decorated with raised curls, while that of the snake is engraved with a scale-like pattern. Instead, the protruding crest of the dragon is marked by three bands with slightly raised ridges, as the other appendages that emerge from the dragon’s body. Openwork dragons, snakes and birds, occasionally holding rings, were carved within the cultural sphere of the Chu state, in southern China, to which this finely executed jade can be safely attributed. The closest comparable example is offered by a pair of twin dragon-shaped pendants in the Musée Guimet, Paris (length 23 cm), which were sliced from the same block of jade and carved identically. Similarly to this lot, the Guimet dragons are also represented as holding a ring, and their bodies are bent in the same manner with a snake carved at one extremity: a difference though is represented by the fact that the crests of the Guimet dragons are shaped as a bird’s head, and not their tails. One of the Guimet dragons was exhibited in 1954 in the Ducal Palace of Venice on the occasion of an exhibition of Chinese art. The dragon is also featured on the jacket of the accompanying exhibition catalogue, Arte Cinese, and illustrated in plate X under no.195. The pair of dragons in the Musée Guimet was published for the first time by H. Hansford, Chinese Carved Jades, London 1968, pl.45 and has also been reproduced in J. Ayers and J. Rawson, Chinese Jades throughout the Ages, London 1975, no.115.

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